I actually had a long chat with Ron Jenkins of the CAA about gyros a while back. He's the sort of chief rotary licensing etc person, don't know his exact title (hope he doesn't read this!). At the time I had a PPL(A) and was close to a PPL(H) and wanted to know how many hours training I'd need for a PPL(G). Anyway, we discussed safety, and he seemed to think they were inherently OK, and that most of the accidents had been due to poor training before it was properly regulated, or poor self-build skills. I must admit what mainly put me off was trusting something with so many moving parts to someone else's DIY skills - or my own for that matter
. But difficulty of flying didn't come into it as far as I remember, and the main snags seemed to be similar to those of the R22, ie negative g and mast bumping if you don't know what you're doing.
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Whirly
To fly is human, to hover, divine.